Women Who Work: the mentoring programme for mums
Are you heading off on maternity leave soon or about to return to work? Is a colleague or a friend? Are you part of a HR team helping to support maternity returners? If yes, read on to find out more about Women Who Work, a non-profit organisation that aims to support women in professional services to return to work after maternity leave.
What does Women Who Work do?
For the last three years, Women Who Work has supported women, primarily in or around London, through quarterly peer-to-peer mentoring programmes where ambitious women are connected to 10-15 women all returning to work in the same three month period. A bit like NCT, but for returning to work. This helps women to not feel alone on their journey back to work and gives them a forum to raise and discuss challenges. It is also totally free!
In August 2025, the Women Who Work mentoring programme launched in Scotland.
Member data shows that the majority of Scottish solicitors are women and a significantly larger proportion of new entrants to the profession are female. While gender equality remains very much at the forefront, there is still a concern that having children risks impacting career progression.
Women Who Work strives to improve gender diversity in professional services, including law, by increasing the pool of talented and ambitious women who want to progress their careers and break the outdated assumptions and stigmas that have for so long accompanied the return-to-work following children.
Meet your Scottish network
Women Who Work was co-founded by Joy Davey, a Financial Services Partner at CMS, and Alexandra Buchan-Heelas, a Director at W1M. The Scottish mentoring arm is run by Mhoraig Blair and Kirsten Partridge.
Mhoraig is Head of Strategic Initiatives at Coalition Greenwich - a Capital Markets Data & Analytics firm - working remotely from home in Edinburgh. Mhoraig has three boys aged between 2 and 7 and frequently travels for work. She is passionate about supporting women who want to juggle career and family in all its messy glory.
Kirsten is a Real Estate Partner at CMS based in Glasgow, where she has worked her entire career. She has an almost 4-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old step daughter, along with four dogs and is really looking forward to helping support women in Scotland as they navigate the return to work journey and beyond.
Recent members of the programme have said:
As a solicitor returning from maternity leave, the Women Who Work mentoring programme offered me peer support, shared experience and honest conversations about progression and the practicalities of juggling work and a career. I would recommend the network to anyone on parental leave who wants to reconnect with their career in a supportive environment.
I found the Women Who Work network in Scotland to be a great source of comfort, reassurance and support following my return to full time work after maternity leave. It was helpful to hear other women’s first-hand experiences and tips about how to manage the juggle.
Connect with us
You can connect with Women Who Work on LinkedIn to keep informed about the programme and get tips on returning to work after parental leave.
There is also a monthly podcast (available on all podcast platforms) where we speak to both women and men to learn about their experiences of returning from parental leave and juggling parenthood and a career.
And if you would like more information on Women Who Work or would like to register for the mentoring programme, head over to www.womenwhowork.uk.
Additional
